Fullerton Man Makes His Case On Soap Opera

March 21, 1986|The Morning Call

Jack Stehlin, the sixth generation of Allentown O'Donnells-Colleanos to dab his face in greasepaint, has been spending this week in a staged courtroom setting playing the role of Atty. Derek Holloway on NBC's "Another World."

The 29-year-old Juilliard School graduate winds up his current stint from 2-3 p.m. today, but an aunt, Mrs. William Reckus of Allentown, says there may be future appearances. Mrs. Reckus is the former Winifred O'Donnell-Colleano.

The actor is the son of former Fullertonians John (Jack) and Kitty Stehlin. His mother and aunt belong to Allentown's O'Donnell circus family known internationally as The Colleanos; his grandfather was the late acrobat- juggler and troupe-manager James H. "Jimmo" O'Donnell who died in 1981. The Colleanos were a featured act for years with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

An uncle, the late Bonar Colleano, achieved considerable reputation in British cinema in wise-cracking American roles, appearing in such films as "The Sea Shall Not Have Them" (1954), "Joe MacBeth" (1955) and "Sleeping Car to Trieste" (1948), which are still seen, if infrequently, on television. Colleano's son, Mark, 24, is a London actor who was the original British Oliver in the musical of that name.

Stehlin's parents now reside in Virginia; his father is with the Navy Department in Washington. But the actor gets back to the Allentown area frequently for visits with cousins and aunts on both the O'Donnell and Stehlin sides.

He has appeared in theater Off-Broadway and in Europe.

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As of this week, Public Broadcasting Service personnel are reunited under one roof. PBS headquarters are now situated in Alexandria, Va., across the Potomac River from the nation's capital in a new office complex called Braddock Place.

PBS had been operating out of several temporary facilities since a 1984 fire damaged its offices at the U.S. Postal Service headquarters in L'Enfant Plaza, Washington, D.C. The company will occupy part of the second and all of the third through sixth floors of a seven-story building.